Former President of the Italian Senate Marcello Pera Joins Hudson Institute

WASHINGTON -- Marcello Pera, an Italian philosopher, Senator, and former President of the Italian Senate, has been named a Visiting Fellow of the Hudson Institute.

"Marcello Pera is a distinguished former public servant, renowned scholar, and prominent public philosopher," says Hudson President and CEO Kenneth Weinstein. "My colleagues and I look forward to benefiting from his knowledge and wisdom."

Pera held the position of President of the Senate of the Italian Republic from 2001 to 2006. In addition, he was a member of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, the Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Issues, the Standing Committee on the Judiciary, and the Joint Committee on Constitutional Reform. In 2005, he co-authored a book with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) entitled Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, and wrote the foreword to the Holy Father's 2006 book, Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures: The Europe of Benedict.

At Hudson, he is writing a book entitled Science and Religion, Politics and Faith: On the Origins and Foundations of Secularism. This volume follows his 2008 book,Perche dobbiamo dirci cristiani: Il liberalismo, l'Europa, l'etica (The English version — Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: Liberalism, Europe, and Ethics — will be published by Encounter), which includes an introduction by Pope Benedict XVI.

Marcello Pera is available for comment on modern political philosophy, religion, public life in Europe, and epistemology.

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